103: Chapter 103 Ruins Meat Grinder

After the Red Tide crossed the ridge, it didn't stop for a moment, pressing directly into the peripheral blocks of the ruins.

The foremost Blood-colored Vines slithered along the road, their barbs scraping against the concrete with a dense rustling sound.

The Pale Species swarms in the center of the street erupted into a violent riot.

Their limbs smashed through the ice crust as they pounced toward the Red Tide.

The two monster armies collided at the edge of the ruins.

Vines coiled around the first Pale Species' ankle, winding up its calf, with the tips forcibly boring into its mouth and nose.

That Pale Species frantically tore at the vine's body, its sharp claws causing juice to spray from the Blood Vine as its body quickly shriveled up.

A nearby Pale Species pounced and bit through the base of the vine, its grayish-white teeth snapping with a crunch.

The severed vine twitched in the snow before being dragged back into the depths of the Red Tide by more vines from behind.

Zhao Mengmeng lay behind a broken window of a ten-story building, staring intently at the scene below.

"Brother Lin, this scene is a bit appetizing, but also a bit nauseating."

Lin Ye's crossbow didn't leave his hand as his gaze swept across the tall buildings on both sides of the block.

"Don't just watch the show, watch the walls."

Zhao Mengmeng immediately raised her gaze.

At the base of several low-rise buildings at the edge of the ruins, thin vines were already climbing up through the cracks.

After they finished off the Pale Species at the street corner, their surfaces turned a deeper color, and their movement speed noticeably increased.

"Holy crap, they're starting to climb the building!"

Zhao Mengmeng's arm holding the crossbow tightened.

Lin Ye looked at the metal signs on the outside of the three abandoned buildings opposite them.

Those structures had long been corroded, with bolts loosened and half of them hanging off the exterior walls, barely suspended by broken brackets.

He swung his right arm repeatedly.

The Dark Weaver's miniature anchors flew through the wind and snow, biting into the load-bearing beams behind the three signs.

The Nano-wire pulled taut.

The first giant billboard let out a piercing metal-tearing sound.

Zhao Mengmeng lay beneath the window.

"With this much noise, can they hear it downstairs?"

"Even those deep in the ruins can."

Lin Ye pulled hard with his wrist.

Boom!

The entire rusted billboard peeled off the eighth-floor exterior wall, crashing toward the street along with its brackets.

Next, the iron scaffolding on the outside of the second building had its anchor points forcibly severed by the Nano-wire.

The tens-of-meters-long iron frame tilted and slid down, smashing window frames along the way as glass and brick fragments poured down with it.

Lin Ye finally pulled down the third metal sign.

Three loud bangs exploded in succession.

The metal structures smashed into the densest part of the Red Tide, flattening a large area of vines into pulp.

The roar echoed repeatedly among the ruined buildings.

A series of dense thumping sounds came from the entrance of the underground garage.

Countless Small Pale Ones surged out of the darkness.

They were only half the size of an adult, with extremely long limbs, and they sprinted along the walls and car wreckage.

Below the broken bridge, from the collapsed subway entrance, a large swarm of grayish-white shadows also crawled out.

Zhao Mengmeng watched this scene through a crack.

"You've woken up the midnight snacks of the entire city."

The Small Pale Ones didn't rush toward the ten-story building.

Attracted by the loud noise, they all pounced toward the main area of the Red Tide where the three pieces of fallen metal were.

The Blood Vines' vanguard was climbing below the building when it was cut off from the side by this wave of pale monsters.

A Small Pale One pounced onto a thick vine, its sharp claws quickly digging through the skin as its entire head bored into the vine's body to bite frantically.

The Blood Vine coiled back, crushing its spine.

More Small Pale Ones charged up over the corpses of their kind, tearing the thick vine into segments.

Lin Ye looked toward the seven-story office building to the southwest.

Over there, three Kangaroo Country Challengers were also being forced to the edge of a broken wall by the vines.

The tall man leading them was named Kane; he was a wilderness rescue instructor from Kangaroo Country with extremely strong climbing abilities.

After the Scarlet Hunt, his team was down to only three people, their food supply was cut off, and their water consisted of only half a jug of dirty ice.

They were hiding behind the broken wall on the seventh floor, originally intending to wait for the Pale Species and Blood Vines to fight it out before going downstairs to find supplies in the chaos.

But the Blood Vines had already started climbing up the office building's exterior wall.

Kane saw that Lin Ye and Zhao Mengmeng were relatively safe in the ten-story building opposite them, so he immediately grabbed a piece of scrap metal and roared at the two people behind him.

"Smash the windows opposite us!"

The three of them simultaneously picked up scrap metal and threw it toward the ten-story building.

The scrap metal crossed the street, aimed straight at the floor where Lin Ye was.

As long as they drew the commotion to that building, the Blood Vines and Pale Species would clear a path for him.

Zhao Mengmeng quickly raised her crossbow.

"Those bastards to the southwest have made their move!"

Lin Ye's left eye had already slightly opened before the scrap metal flew out.

Behind the broken wall on the seventh floor, the originally green humanoid outlines instantly turned red.

He raised his right arm.

Dozens of Nano-wires rapidly wove into a net in mid-air.

When the scrap metal reached the middle of the street, it slammed into an invisible wire net.

There was no loud bang.

Only the muffled sound of a sharp blade slicing through rotten wood.

The scrap metal was dismembered in mid-air, and the fragments fell into the snowbank below, the noise completely drowned out by the Pale Species' roars.

Inside the seven-story office building.

Kane's hands froze in mid-air, and the second piece of stone he had just picked up crashed heavily by his feet.

Zhao Mengmeng looked across.

"Damn it, they still want to use us as bait?"

"He wants to live, but he chose the fastest way to die."

Kane turned and shrank back behind the wall.

Lin Ye's movements were faster than his.

The Dark Weaver's momentum hadn't faded as a Nano-wire flew through the wind and snow, precisely boring into the broken wall of the seventh floor.

The Nano-wire bypassed Kane's shoulder and directly coiled around a sheet metal office desk inside the room.

"Run!" Kane screamed.

Lin Ye pulled hard.

The sheet metal office desk was forcibly dragged up, smashing toward the office building's interior wall.

Thud!

A muffled thud caused dust to fall all over the seventh floor.

Before Kane and his two teammates could reach the stairwell, the office desk was dragged by the Nano-wire again, smashing toward the load-bearing partition wall.

Thud!

The corner of the desk smashed through the concrete pillar's exterior, exposing the rebar.

Thud!

The entire interior of the seven-story office building was booming.

This sound was more concentrated than the window-smashing earlier and much closer to the Kangaroo Country trio's hiding spot.

The Pale Species below all looked up in unison.

The pale monster swarm scrambled up the exterior wall of the office building.

Kane heard the dense climbing sounds outside and retreated toward the end of the corridor on all fours.

"Stop! Great Xia person! Stop!"

Lin Ye's arm exerted force again.

The office desk smashed through the corridor wall panels, and broken bricks tumbled down the stairwell.

The Pale Species surged into the seventh floor through broken windows, exterior wall cracks, and the stairwell all at once.

A Kangaroo Country teammate brandished a Bone Spear and stabbed wildly; he had just pierced a Pale Species' chest when three more from behind pounced on his back.

A scream rang out, soon drowned by the sound of chewing.

Kane held his head and rushed toward another room, but a Small Pale One dropped from a hole in the ceiling and tackled him directly.

"I was forced! I just want to live!"

Zhao Mengmeng looked across coldly.

"Who doesn't want to live? Why do you get to harm others first?"

Kane's cries for help stopped.

At the broken wall of the seven-story office building, only splashing blood and writhing pale backs remained.

The Kangaroo Country Livestream's chat broke down.

[Massacre! Great Xia's Lin Ye intentionally killed our Challenger!]

[He clearly could have spared Kane!]

[It was just smashing a window, why did he have to be so ruthless!]

The Great Xia Live Stream immediately retaliated.

["Just" smashing a window? Behind that window were two Great Xia lives!]

[You tried to harm others with your petty tricks but got hit with a physical rebound; dying too fast and now you're acting aggrieved?]

[Brother Eye's face-slapping is so direct, it's satisfying.]

[Kangaroo Country, don't cry. Kane didn't die because of Lin Ye; he died because of gluttonous monsters and his own meddling.]

Lin Ye steadily retracted the Nano-wire.

Zhao Mengmeng gave him a thumbs up.

"Keep an eye on the floor below."

The flesh-and-blood grinder on the street was still expanding.

The Pale Species tore the vines apart, and the vines devoured the Pale Species.

The Blood Vines absorbed a large amount of flesh, and the thin vines on the outer edge expanded rapidly.

The vines, originally as thick as a wrist, swelled to the thickness of a thigh within a few minutes.

The main vine deeper in drilled into the ground, lifting concrete and frozen soil as it forcibly rooted itself beneath the ruins.

At the foot of the ten-story building, several severed vines stopped climbing.

Instead, they began to burrow into the cracks around the foundation.

Lin Ye's left eye snapped open.

On the load-bearing structure of the building's ground floor, red linear warnings of crisis rose rapidly.

The foundation had been hollowed out.

"Go."

Before Zhao Mengmeng could ask, a tooth-aching cracking sound came from the concrete floor beneath her feet.